Abstract:

For various reasons, assessment constitutes an important moment for both students and teachers in all courses of training/learning [Fautley 2010]. In the sphere of musical learning and practice it takes on specific characteristics determined by various factors - cultural and historical traditions, educational and didactic models, etc. - which in their dynamism also make reference to aspects of the personal musical experience.
To this can be added a literature on the matter that offers positions that are highly divergent [Fautley 2010], and in some ways contrasting, which make the overall scenario, at a theoretic and practical level, somewhat heterogeneous.
In Italian schools further specific elements come into play resulting from: the different type of training of the ‘music’ teachers present in the various levels of school, scholastic contexts that are differentiated from both a structural and curricular point of view, organisational aspects, different ways of measuring, etc.
This study intends - through a comparative analysis of the existing international and national literature in relation to the evaluation practices adopted in a sample of Italian school teachers - to highlight the main characteristics of the techniques and modalities of assessment present in the sector of music education in the basic Italian school system, how they are determined and how they influence the contents of the entire curriculum. On this basis, some reflections will then be added about the role and function of the teacher in the delicate area of schooling represented by assessment.

Keywords:

Assessment, basic school, music education.